Can you eat banana bread on a keto diet?
Yes! This low carb banana bread recipe easily fits into a ketogenic diet. It’s much lower in added sugar than the real thing, but tastes eerily similar to traditional banana bread.
Before we talk about how to fit keto banana bread into your keto plan, I wanted to let you know this blog contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you click through. You’ll also find plenty of links to the resources that helped me lose 100 pounds with a low carb lifestyle.
Are Bananas Keto?
The quick answer is no. You don’t want to nosh on real bananas as snacks since they have 27 grams of carbs per banana. Even eating a banana on a lazy keto diet isn’t a great idea. When it comes to lazy keto vs strict keto, you can usually get away with eating a few more foods. Since bananas have 14 grams of sugar each, these don’t even make the lazy keto shopping list.
What if you follow a low carb diet vs. keto?
Even though some fruit can be a great addition to a low carb diet, a banana isn’t one of them. Eating a ripened banana solo, aka without added fat, can cause a large blood sugar spike. This can take low carb dieters out of the fat burning zone for longer than is recommended.
Can You Make Keto Banana Bread without Bananas?
There’s a lot of recipes floating around that claim to be the best keto banana bread recipe. When you peek at the ingredients, these keto recipes don’t even use real bananas! Instead the recipes use a banana flavor to make a sugar free banana bread.
I don’t know about you – but if I make a claim to have the best low carb bread recipe, banana extract just doesn’t cut it for my taste buds.
The good news is you can make keto banana bread with real bananas and eat it too! When you use small amounts of fruit in keto baking, there’s not a whole lotta carbs in a single serving. Using bananas vs banana extract makes this a more flavorful banana bread. As long as you don’t go way over carbs in other meals throughout the day, low carb keto banana bread can fit into a keto meal plan.
A Keto Friendly Resistant Starch Recipe
While most banana bread recipes instruct you to use an overripe banana, there’s a secret ingredient that makes this keto bread even lower in carbs. Instead of using ripe bananas, this recipes uses underripe bananas. This is strategic in order to take advantage of resistant starch. This is a type of starch your body isn’t able to digest. It’s a prebiotic that helps gut health.
When you subtract grams of fiber, plus resistant starch found in very green bananas, total grams of net carbs is very low in this recipe. The amount of net carbs per slice is around 6.5 grams. Since this recipe is filling, those carbs help you feel more satiated on a keto diet.
If you’re a Keto Challenger, you learned counting net carbs is for cheaters. Even when you count the total carbs in this quick bread recipe, the carb count is still less than 10 grams of total carbs per slice. When you eat up to 30 total carbs per day, a slice can easily fit in. Just keep it to a slice.
In order to take advantage of resistant starch, buy bananas that are very green and use them within a few days. Choose a bunch with a medium banana size. Since I’m not able to use an entire bunch of green bananas in enough time, I peel the bananas and freeze them. When I’m ready to make a new batch of keto banana bread, I thaw a few on the counter for an hour.
How to Make Keto Banana Bread
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter on the stove in a small saucepan. Then combine the wet ingredients in a large bowl with a hand mixer. The wet ingredients include the bananas, eggs, and melted butter. Once combined, set aside.
Another way to make this recipe keto is to use almond flour instead of a regular all purpose flour. Coconut flour is another option, but you’ll need to make a few adjustments to the recipe.
In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add almond flour, cinnamon, and fresh baking powder to a mixing bowl and combine well. If you choose a keto-friendly sweetener like erythritol or allulose, add that into the dry ingredients as well. I no longer include low carb sweeteners in my keto sweet treats. More on that in a minute.
Once the dry ingredients are combined, pour the mixture into the mixing bowl that contains the wet ingredient mixture. Blend with a hand mixer until no dry spots remain.
The recipe calls for 1/4 cup walnuts. If you only have whole walnuts on hand, use the back of a measuring cup to crush them. Like using a little less elbow grease? Nut crushers work great with keto recipes that call for chopped nuts. (If you’re a man who’s into keto baking, these are much less harsh than they sound).
Once crushed, stir the walnuts into the banana bread batter. Reserve a little bit of crushed walnuts to sprinkle on top of the bread.
Bake the Low Carb Banana Bread
Grab a 7 x 3.5 inch loaf pan. Before pouring the batter in, line the small loaf pan with parchment paper. This makes for easy clean up when baking keto breads.
If you prefer keto banana muffins, you can use a lined muffin pan instead. I bet these would even taste great with a cream cheese frosting!
Once lined, fill the pan with the batter. Sprinkle the crushed walnuts on top. If you choose to chop up dark chocolate to make your own sugar-free chocolate chips, sprinkle some of those on top too. That’s a great addition to this almond flour banana bread recipe.
Place the bread in the preheated oven. Bake the bread for 30 minutes.
Check on it around 30 minutes to make sure the top isn’t turning too dark. If it is turning a dark brown, place aluminum foil on top so it doesn’t burn. The bread likely needs another 10 minutes to bake. You can use the toothpick test to check if it’s ready. Just insert the toothpick into the center of the bread. If it comes out clean when you remove it, the bread is ready to cool.
Allow the keto banana bread to cool to room temperature before slicing. If you slice too soon, it could fall apart.
Keto Sweeteners
As I teased earlier, I avoid adding keto-friendly sweeteners and sugar alcohols to low carb recipes.
Remember how I talked about resistant starch being great for gut health? This is a great recipe to add to your keto plan to take advantage of the health benefits of resistant starch while still maintaining ketosis.
Want to know what’s not so great for gut health? Most low carb sweeteners.
If you want to learn more, you can check out this blog about why I gave up keto sweeteners. This is a great recipe to test out without added sweeteners since bananas are already sweet. If you add a little dark chocolate to the mix – that might help even more.
If you’re still accustomed to a sweeter banana bread, taste test the batter before baking. You can add your favorite sweetener if the batter isn’t sweet enough for you. Monk fruit or liquid stevia are both a great option. If you want to learn even more sweetener options, get this free keto sweetener guide. You’ll learn the best keto-friendly sweeteners, as well as how to convert them in various keto recipes.
You can easily wean your way off sweeteners over time if this sounds like something that’s right for you. The first time you make this recipe, use the full amount of sweetener. Next time, use less. Keep weaning your way off sweeteners until you don’t need any at all.
What happens if you make the original recipe, but it’s still too bland? If you decided to go sweetener-free, and it’s not as tasty as you’d like, try adding butter. That’s a great way to add healthy fats to this keto bread recipe.
The Keto Banana Bread Recipe Wrap Up
Low carb banana bread makes a great addition to your keto meal plan. It’s a filling recipe that’s great for a low-carb diet. It’s low in sugar, gluten free and it’s even almost dairy free. (If dairy causes issues for you, swap out the butter for coconut oil).
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. If you don’t eat the bread within a couple of days, you can freeze single slices. Don’t freeze the entire loaf since you won’t be able to slice it until it fully thaws.
Save this recipe to your favorite keto desserts Pinterest board. If you love it, please share the healthy fat love with others on social media.
Keep scrolling for the recipe card and nutrition information.
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Keto Banana Bread Recipe
More Fat Burning Recipes from Eating Fat is the New Skinny:
Pecan Pie Bars
Keto Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Pecan Balls
Keto Banana Bread
A delicious keto friendly banana bread recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: Serves 10 1x
- Category: Keto Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Keto / Low Carb
- Diet: Diabetic
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cups almond flour
- 2 green bananas
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup walnuts, crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a small loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Add the eggs, bananas and butter to a mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer to combine the ingredients well.
- Add the almond flour, cinnamon and baking powder to a separate bowl. Stir together to combine.
- Pour the mixed dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl. Use a hand mixer to combine together.
- Mix the crushed walnuts into the banana bread batter. Reserve a small amount to sprinkle on top of the bread.
- Pour the batter into the lined loaf pan. Flatten with a spatula and top with remaining crushed nuts.
- The total cooking time will be around 40 minutes. Check at the 30 minute mark to make sure the top isn’t getting too dark. If it is, cover loosely with aluminum foil.
- Allow the bread to cool before slicing. Store in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Recipe Serves 10
- Calories: 184
- Sugar: 3.9
- Fat: 14.6
- Saturated Fat: 2.8
- Carbohydrates: 9.8
- Fiber: 2.9
- Protein: 6.2
Keywords: Keto Banana Bread, Low Carb Banana Bread, Easy Keto Dessert Recipe
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